Just days after closing two of their lower performing restaurants, San Diego celebrity chef Brian Malarkey and partner James Brennan announced Monday that a global hospitality firm had acquired a majority stake in their company.

The investment by London-based Hakkasan Ltd., should help provide the capital needed to fuel the duo's ambitious plans to rapidly expand the Searsucker and Herringbone restaurant brands, launched just a few years ago. Their company, Enlightened Hospitality Group, never contemplated expansion onto foreign soil, but that will likely change with its alliance with Hakkasan, Brennan said.

"While going international was never on our growth plan, the sky is now the limit," said Brennan, who formerly operated several nightclubs before transitioning into restaurant development. "We were already well capitalized but this takes it to a completely different level."

Brennan would not disclose the purchase price but did say that Hakkasan's stake in his company is 51 percent. As part of the deal, Enlightened's downtown nightclub, Stingaree, was sold in its entirety to Hakkasan, which will take over the operation by the end of the month.

"We get all the intrinsic value of a well-established nightlife/restaurant organization that has a lot of the bells and whistles from a corporate standpoint, like really robust HR and accounting departments and huge marketing teams that work digitally and in print," he added.

Hakkasan Ltd.

Based in London, the hospitality company has 17 restaurants, including a number of Michelin-starred venues, spread across four brands, with a Shanghai location set to open this spring.

Hakkasan – 11 restaurants, including locations in New York, Miami, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Beverly Hills, with a 12th to open in Shanghai.

Yauatcha – Four locations in London and Mumbai, Bengaluru and New Delhi in India

Sake no Hana – Two locations, one in London and another in Dubai

HKK – One restaurant, in London

Hakkasan itself, which originated in 2001 as an upscale Chinese restaurant based in London, has undergone a global expansion, from Abu Dhabi and Mumbai to Las Vegas and Beverly Hills. The Hakkasan group is currently owned by the Abu Dhabi-based investment company, Tasameen. When Hakkasan opened last year in Las Vegas, the 80,000-square-foot dining and club complex was described as the largest nightclub in the nation.

Although the restaurants controlled by Hakkasan all are Asian concepts, their atmosphere and the company's evolving interest in nightlife venues make it a good fit for Enlightened Hospitality, Brennan said.

His company, though, has experienced a roller coaster-like ride as it sought to quickly replicate its fabric-themed dining venues both in San Diego County and outside the state.

Last week the company closed its Gabardine restaurant in Point Loma and Searsucker in Scottsdale, Ariz., both of which had opened in 2012. And last year, it sold its struggling Gingham restaurant in La Mesa to the Cohn Restaurant Group and also closed Burlap in Carmel Valley. The Cohn Group subsequently transformed Gingham into BO-beau Kitchen + Garden, a sister restaurant to its Ocean Beach eatery, and Burlap was reinvented as another Searsucker.